You can improve your chances of success with winter Pansies by planting in a well-drained spot using compost and fertilizer (Chesapeake Blue and Bulb-Tone) and spraying the foliage regularly with Seamate to thicken the cell walls, thereby increasing winter hardiness.

Question: We plant Wave Petunias every year and last year they kept dying all summer and we had to keep replacing them until we couldn't get anymore. We have done fine with Wave Petunias in the past and I just don't understand what happened.

Answer:  Don't feel like the "Lone Ranger". I have heard of several cases like yours. I don't have a full answer, but this is what I know. The Wave Petunias seem to die from a root rot and in many places last summer it was wetter than usual. The problem seemed to occur only where Wave Petunias were planted year after year in the same bed. In similar circumstances, I know of no one who had trouble with Surfinia Petunias. I doubt it is worth while to try and treat the soil with a fungicide; but the soil should be amended so that it is well-drained. If you want Wave Petunias, I suggest you plant them in a bed that didn't have Wave Petunias in it last year. I don't encourage planting Wave Petunias in the same bed again this year. Instead, I suggest you try another flower or at the very least, another variety of Petunia until the situation clarifies.

Question #1: I am planning for some foundation plantings this year. And even without any plantings I have a rodent problem.

Question #2: This is "a new" garden and house (3rd year) in Abingdon, MD. Last summer I put in a nice flower bed in front of house and planted some perennials, bulbs and Pansies. During the fall (and continuously I see it now as well) I noted a lot of holes (about 0.5 inch in diameter or bigger) which really are "the tunnels" for some creatures. My Pansies have been eaten up (flowers and some leaves), bed looks like after bulls race. I am afraid about my bulbs. Some of them are showing up already, but not in the masses I planted. Is there any available poison that I could put inside their tunnels-homes and destroy them before they destroy my plants? Please help.

Answer: Undoubtedly you both have voles. Voles seem to be becoming more and more prevalent every year. Unlike moles that tend to hibernate in the winter and feed off grubs and earth worms, voles feast on plants, roots and bulbs all year long. Moles tend to leave raised tunnels in the lawn, whereas vole tunnels are not raised but evidence themselves as scattered round holes, usually in a flower or shrub bed, about one inch across, sometimes surrounded with a pile of soil removed from the tunnels. When the ground is snow-covered voles chew long, narrow furrows in the lawn as they feed on grass under the snow.

The best method I have found to eradicate voles is with a poison bait called Ramik. It takes about two weeks of baiting for the Ramik to be effective. Wear gloves and place a few Ramik nuggets next to a vole hole. Do not place the Ramik down the hole or you won't know if the voles are taking the bait. You will have to re-bait every day until the voles stop taking the bait. You need not bait around every hole, but if the holes are spaced more than five feet apart, you probably have more than one vole infestation and you need to set-up bait stations throughout the infested area.

Very Important: Cover each baited hole with an inverted large flower pot saucer held down with a couple of bricks or a large rock. Be sure the saucer covers both the bait and the hole. As always, carefully read and follow label directions.

Question: My lawn was devastated last fall with grubs. I applied the Dylox which seemed to solve the problem. Should I apply Dylox again this spring?

Answer: Beetle grubs have only one generation per year. If not killed, they chew the roots off the lawn in the spring as well as the fall. As you already killed the beetle grubs in the fall, you do not need to treat again in the spring. Dylox is applied in the spring, as soon as the grubs are evident, only on lawns that were not treated in the fall. Your next treatment will be with either Mach II or Merit in the summer, or if you don't get to it, Dylox in the fall.

Question:  I planted magic lily bulbs last year and I didn't get any flowers at all. What should I feed them and when?